If the explanations you’re demanding for what works aren’t working,
perhaps it’s because you’re avoiding nuance in exchange for
simplicity.

It would take Lee Clow far more than five minutes to explain how to
design an ad that works. Clive Davis didn’t have the words to tell you
what would make a hit record. Even the ostensibly simple food of Alice
Waters can’t be easily copied by an amateur.

And yet your boss keeps asking you to explain your whole plan in three
Powerpoint slides.

The VC who allocates one minute to understand why your business will
work has done everyone no favors. The blog reader who clicks away
after a paragraph wasted his time visiting at all.

Skip the complicated, time-consuming part at your own risk. The cycle
of test and failure works largely because it exposes us to nuance.

If it were obvious, everyone would do it. Wait, that’s too simple. How
about this: Nuance and subtlety aren’t the exception in changing human
behavior. They’re the norm.